Container forming machine



June 11, 1968 H. BECKERS 3,387,543

CONTAINER FORMING MACHINE Filed ot. 21, 1966 Fig. 3

IN VE N 701?: HANS flaunts A'MoQNEYS United States Patent 4 Claims. (51. 93-36) The present invention relates to a packaging machine combined with a draw press for forming the containers to be filled and closed by the machine. The invention is particularly concerned with containers made of aluminum foil.

In modern packaging plants for filling, providing with lids and closing containers, large quantities of the containers are required which are fed one after the other to the individual filling, lidding, and closing stations by means of a rotating table or a conveyor chain. When using containers of aluminum foil, there have heretofore generally been employed containers which were previously made elsewhere and stored in a magazine provided in the packaging installation and removed from the magazine during the operation of the apparatus. Previous attempts to avoid the disadvantages inherent in the prefabricating of containers of aluminum foil (the disadvantage including the necessity of additional operating personnel, transportation of the preformed containers, and filling of the magazines) by employing a draw press, used for producing containers from aluminum foil, as an operating station in, or in the immediate vicinity of, the packaging apparatus have been unsuccessful. One reason for this failure is that the orderly removal of the containers from the draw press and the orderly feeding of them into the packaging machine encounter difiiculties, particularly in the case of a machine having a plurality of stations in which several containers are filled and sealed simultaneously during each operating cycle.

In order to eliminate these disadvantages, the present invention provides a packaging installation including a draw press for producing the containers, particularly containers of aluminum foil, which are to be filled and closed by the installation. The apparatus is characterized by the fact that during each operating cycle a plurality of blanks, aligned with each other in the longitudinal direction of the web, are punched out simultaneously by a draw press of known type. The web of foil is advanced stepwise by rollers from a supply roll, and the blanks are formed into the packaging containers by the draw press. The advance of the web of foil for the next succeeding operating cycle of the draw press is completed before the containers, which have been completely shaped, are ejected from the draw dies of the draw press located above the web of foil. Consequently the containers, after ejection, fall upon a smooth, unpunched portion of the strip of foil. The containers are then fed, unimpeded by the punched edges of the holes in the web left by the cutout blanks, in orderly fashion to a transfer device terminating at the rotating platform of the packaging machine.

A feature of the invention, is the transfer device of special character employed for the case in-which the containers are ejected with their opening facing downward. According to the invention, the special feature resides in the fact that the transfer device consists of one or more guide channels, equal to the number of packaging containers which are produced simultaneously, and that the guide channels, which have one end arranged in the vicinity of the die of the draw press and the other end above the rotating platform of the packaging machine, are curved downward through about 180 so that each con- 3,387,543 Patented June 11, 1968 tainer is deposited with its opening facing upward on the rotating platform.

One embodiment of the invention is shown by way of example in the drawings and will be described in further detail below. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a rotating-platform packaging machine combined with a draw press;

FIG. 2 is a schematic plan view showing the guiding of a web of foil through the draw press.

FIG. 3 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing the guiding of the web of foil through the draw press.

Referring to the drawings there is shown a packaging machine having a rotating table 1 which is rotated in stepwise fashion, and has pockets 2 to receive packaging containers 3. Arranged around the periphery of the table 1 are a number of stationary operating stations. These stations include a filling station 10, a lid applying station 11, a lid closure station 12, and a closed package removal station 13. In addition, a draw press 14 is located at the periphery of platform 1.

By means of the draw press, blanks 18 are stamped out from a web of aluminum foil 16 which is withdrawn from a supply roll (not shown) and advanced stepwise, in the direction of the upwardly-facing arrow in FIG. 2, by feed rollers 17. The draw press 14 then forms the blanks, in a well-known manner, into the packing containers 3. The draw press 14 of the present example is so designed that during each operating cycle three blanks 18 are simultaneously punched out and formed. The formed containers 3 each have a flanged edge 4 and are ejected, preferably by a blast of compressed air indicated by the arrow A in FIG- URE 3, from that part of the draw die 15 of the draw press 14 which is located above the foil web 16 after the forming process terminates. As shown in FIG. 3, the formed containers are deposited upside down on the web 16.

By suitable control of the feed rollers 17, the foil web 16 is moved ahead by one operating length and brought again to a stop by the time the containers 3 are ejected from the die 15, as shown in FIGURE 2 in which the foil web 16 with the cutouts 19 left after the punching out of the blanks 18 can be noted. In other words, after the punching operation and during the forming operation, the Web 16 is advanced in order to bring an unpunched portion of the web beneath the forming dies of the draw press 14. Accordingly, the containers 3 are ejected from the die 15 on to a completely smooth portion of the foil web 16. As a result, the containers can be conveyed in orderly fashion without being impeded by the edges of the cutouts 19. In the present example, the containers 3 after being deposited on to the smooth portion of the foil web 16 are conveyed directly on to the rotating platform 1 for which purpose a transfer device 20 is provided.

The transfer device 20 consists of three guide channels 21 each of which has one end 22 arranged in the vicinity of the draw press 14 so that the containers 3 can be pushed into the guide channels, for instance, by means of a blast of compressed air from nozzles 23 which are arranged in the draw press 14. The blast of compressed air can, if desired, be initiated even before the containers 3 come to rest on the foil strip 16. The guide channels 21 are, as shown in FIG. 3, curved downward through about 180 at 24 and the other end 25 of each discharges above the rotating platform 1. Therefore, during each operating cycle of the apparatus, one container 3 with its bottom facing downward is discharged from each guide channel 21 on to the rotating platform 1. The containers q) ranged a compressed air nozzle 26 which serves to aid the movement of the containers 3 through the channel.

The advantages obtained with the invention consist primarily in the fact that the manufacture of the packaging containers and the automatic feeding thereof is effected in satisfactory manner even in the case of packaging installations of extremely large output having a large number of operating stations.

The invention has been shown and described in preferred form only, and by way of example, and many variations may be made in the invention which will still be comprised within its spirit. It is understood, therefore, that the invention is not limited to any specific form or embodiment except insofar as such limitations are included in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A packaging installation including container-forming means and container filling and closing means, said container-forming means comprising means for punching container blanks from a continuous web of packaging material, means for feeding said web longitudinally in stepwise fashion between successive punching operations, means located above the web for forming said blanks into containers, said feeding means serving to advance the web before the completion of the forming operation and before the next successive punching operation in order to bring an unpunched portion of the web beneath said forming means, means for ejecting the formed containers on to the unpunched portion of the web, a transfer device for conveying the containers from the web to said filling and closing means, and means for introducing the containers into said transfer device.

2. A packaging installation as defined in claim 1 wherein said introducing means includes air blast means for blowing said containers from said web into said transfer device.

3. A packaging installation as defined in claim 1 wherein the containers are deposited upside-down on said web, and said transfer device includes a number of guide channels equal to the number of containers produced during each punching and forming cycle of operation, one end of each guide channel being located adjacent to said forming means, and the other end of each guide channel being located adjacent to said filling means, the portion of each guide channel adjacent to said other end being curved so as to deposit its respective container right-side-up on said filling means.

4. A packaging installation as defined in claim 3 including an air blast means in each guide channel for blowing air generally in the direction of movement of the containers through said guide channels.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS BERNARD STICKNEY, Primary Examiner. 

1. A PACKAGING INSTALLATION INCLUDING CONTAINER-FORMING MEANS AND CONTAINER FILLING AND CLOSING MEANS, SAID CONTAINER-FORMING MEANS COMPRISING MEANS FOR PUNCHING CONTAINER BLANKS FROM A CONTINUOUS WEB OF PACKAGING MATERIAL, MEANS FOR FEEDING SAID WEB LONGITUDINALLY IN STEPWISE FASHION BETWEEN SUCCESSIVE PUNCHING OPERATIONS, MEANS LOCATED ABOVE THE WEB FOR FORMING SAID BLANKS INTO CONTAINERS, SAID FEEDING MEANS SERVING TO ADVANCE THE WEB BEFORE THE COMPLETION OF THE FORMING OPERATION AND BEFORE THE NEXT SUCCESSIVE PUNCHING OPERATION IN ORDER TO BRING AN UNPUNCHED PORTION OF THE WEB BENEATH SAID FORMING MEANS, MEANS FOR EJECTING THE FORMED CONTAINERS ON TO THE UNPUNCHED PORTION OF THE WEB, A TRANSFER DEVICE FOR CONVEYING THE CONTAINERS FROM THE WEB TO SAID FILLING AND CLOSING MEANS, AND MEANS FOR INTRODUCING THE CONTAINERS INTO SAID TRANSFER DEVICE. 